Cause of Action’s Dan Epstein talks with Lars Larson about how the CPSC’s actions regarding Craig Zucker are not about consumer safety, they’re about punishing an entrepreneur who dared to speak out against the federal government.
Once again, the United States Congress has relied upon Cause of Action’s work to hold federal agencies accountable and demand transparency.
On May 15, 2014, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking for documents based on internal emails Cause of Action obtained showing White House intervention into FOIA and congressional document requests.
OGR seeks documents that will determine “whether White House or EPA employees have engaged in illegal conduct by actively obstructing this Committee’s investigation.”
According to the Committee’s latest letter, EPA withheld documents improperly: “When the Committee was finally able to review the unredacted e-mails, it was clear that the redactions applied to the FOIA production were made to hide embarrassing conversations between EPA staff. The redactions were not, in fact, covered by the FOIA exemptions cited by EPA. It is unacceptable for EPA to hide behind improper FOIA redactions.”
In March 2014, Cause of Action released a report, Grading the Government: How the White House Targets Document Requesters, detailing how the White House is politicizing FOIA and Congressional document requests.
Cause of Action’s strategic investigations help Congress to expose the hypocrisy of this Administration’s claim to be “the most transparent in history.” Moreover, Cause of Action has empowered the House Oversight Committee to raise unique constitutional concerns related to alleged obstruction of congressional oversight by the President.
In order to hold EPA accountable and give the American taxpayers transparency, Cause of Action has now sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to EPA requesting all documents provided to Congress pursuant to a subpoena as well as documents evidencing communications between EPA and the White House.
You can read CoA’s letter to the EPA here.
You can read the OGR letter to the EPA here.
See all the documents from Cause of Action’s investigation here.
Oversight Committee Letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy by CauseOfAction
May 19, 2014 FOIA to EPA re White House review of records by CauseOfAction
Read the full story: Reason
“I believe the case against Mr. Zucker should never have gotten started without an affirmative Commission vote approving the issuance of a complaint against him,” she wrote. This lawsuit consumed two years of Zucker’s life and will cost him as much as $375,000 plus more in legal fees; now, after the case is settled, she speaks out?
With the announcement of a settlement, the government accountability law firm Cause of Action is dropping the countersuit it filed on Zucker’s behalf, but will continue its efforts to uncover why the agency went after him in the first place through Freedom of Information Act litigation. It’ll be interesting to see what Cause of Action can uncover.
Read the full story: Wall Street Journal
Individuals increasingly find themselves with little choice but stand up against President Obama’s regulatory machine. So congratulations to Craig Zucker, who scored a modest if still costly victory against the Consumer Product Safety Commission earlier this month.
Mr. Zucker cofounded Maxfield & Oberton, which in 2009 began marketing powerful rare-earth magnets as desk toys for office workers. By 2012 Buckyballs were generating $10 million in sales. Then in July 2012 the CPSC filed an administrative suit against the company, citing the risk of children swallowing the magnets and essentially banning Buckyballs from the marketplace. It did not matter that Maxfield & Oberton had included multiple warning labels and kept Buckyballs out of stores that sell children’s toys.
LabMD Files Appeal, Takes Fight Against FTC Back to 11th Circuit
Judge tells FTC investigation is “a sad comment on your agency” but lacks jurisdiction to stop it
Washington, D.C. (May 15, 2014) – Today, Cause of Action (CoA) is filing an emergency appeal on behalf of LabMD, following a federal judge’s ruling that he lacked jurisdiction even while telling the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “the public is served by guiding people beforehand rather than beating them up after.”
On May 7, 2014, in open court, U.S. District Court Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., criticized the FTC for its practice of monitoring blogs containing critical speech, for “parachuting in” to the highly regulated health care field, and for its failure to “tell…[health care companies] what the FTC rules are because they have never told anybody.” He told the FTC that its investigation of LabMD was “a sad comment on your agency …” and that the FTC’s assault against LabMD harmed the “consuming public” by taking LabMD “out of the market” thereby reducing the number of companies providing cancer detection services. Judge Duffey advised the FTC that it had an obligation to give companies “guidance” as to what it does or does not expect with respect to data security because “the public is served by guiding people beforehand rather than beating them up after …”
However, on May 13, 2014, Judge Duffey ruled he lacked jurisdiction to stop the FTC’s attack against LabMD.
Today, Cause of Action (CoA) is filing an emergency appeal on behalf of LabMD in the 11th Circuit seeking to stop the FTC’s assault.
Daniel Epstein, CoA’s Executive Director said:
“No federal agency should be able to act without authority to damage business and exert power it has never been granted, which is why LabMD must appeal the Federal District Court’s decision. Judge Duffey described the FTC’s aggressive actions against LabMD as ‘a sad comment’ on the agency, and accountability for its over-the-line attempts to insert the agency into the healthcare field must be stopped.
“When a district judge recognizes the egregious and shameful behavior of an agency but rules that he is unable to take action to stop it, the Federal Courts of Appeals are well positioned to ensure that runaway power is not tolerated in our federal system.”
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In a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge William Duffey in the North District of Georgia, the government made some ridiculous arguments and was criticized by a federal judge for shutting down a small business without providing any guidance. Here are some of the highlights from the hearing:
A Department of Justice attorney claimed that Federal Trade Commission employees regularly visited LabMD CEO Michael Daugherty’s personal website to “monitor whether or not he’s still continuing to express his speech.” Judge Duffey responded:
The transcript continues:
